I'm using a firepod for recording with a beta 52, three sm57's, an mxl603's
and a sennheiser e835.. when i bought my firepod the site i bought it at had
a promotion where they threw in the sennheiser e835 and 8 whirlwind emc20
20foot cables for 'free'. the whirlwind cables seem to go for anywhere from
$9-15 each on most sites so i'm guessing they're pretty bottom of the barrel..

anyhow i don't know anything about mic cables although i do know that i'm not
interested in spending $500 for 8 cables.. how much does the quality of a mic
cable influence the sound? ie, would i notice a difference in recording
quality between these whirlwind cables and say a mid range $25 cable?

thanks

Steve
How far are you likely to run your inherited mic cables to the input
interface?
Are these budget extension cables *already* fitted with good make 3-p male
and female XLRs?
Are you going to coil and uncoil them repeatedly (daily) for a long period?
Do you know what the type of cable used in their assembly is? - its ID may
be silk-screened along the jacket.
Jim

Probably not unless the cable breaks....... then you will notice a big
change.

The cheaper cables may be more likely to break due to mechanical
stress.

Mark

steve wrote:
I'm using a firepod for recording with a beta 52, three sm57's, an mxl603's
and a sennheiser e835.. when i bought my firepod the site i bought it at had
a promotion where they threw in the sennheiser e835 and 8 whirlwind emc20
20foot cables for 'free'. the whirlwind cables seem to go for anywhere from
$9-15 each on most sites so i'm guessing they're pretty bottom of the barrel..

anyhow i don't know anything about mic cables although i do know that i'm not
interested in spending $500 for 8 cables.. how much does the quality of a mic
cable influence the sound? ie, would i notice a difference in recording
quality between these whirlwind cables and say a mid range $25 cable?

The influence on sound is likely quite minimal for most purposes. Based
on the types of mics you are using, I don't believe you are doing
highly critical minimalist recordings of acoustic music where in can
be more of a factor.

What may be more important is reliability/build quality. Really cheap
cables tend to fail sooner---either at the connector or occasionally
at some mystery place in the middle of the cable.

But I thought Whirlwind was of reasonable quality in the same range as
Digiflex. I still really like those old Whirlwind guitar cables with
the white plastic/brass connectors. I have to admit I never fully trusted
the fact that the brass housing does not fully enclose the signal with
a shield---but I always like the look and feel of them. And I have
ones that are 20 years old that have never failed.

Rob R.

steve wrote:

anyhow i don't know anything about mic cables although i do know that i'm not
interested in spending $500 for 8 cables.. how much does the quality of a mic
cable influence the sound? ie, would i notice a difference in recording
quality between these whirlwind cables and say a mid range $25 cable?

Not very much. The whole nature of microphone lines is that they are low
impedance to reduce cable effects. You don't have to deal with the crap
that you do with home stereo stuff using crappy unbalanced high-Z lines.

BUT, cheap cables fail. And when they fail, some of them aren't even
repairable. A friend of mine recently got a stack of Samson cables from
a vendor to discover that half of them had cold solder joints, and one
of them even had a defect in the cable where only the red wire went in
one end of the cable and only the white one came out the other... the guys
at the factory just soldered the wires that were there and shipped it.
I won't even talk about those godawful molded Hosa connectors. There's nothing
worse than trying to find a bad cable in a system when everyone is staring
at you. Spend money on decent cables like the Whirlwind, Canare, or Gepco
stuff. Crappy cables fail.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

Steve
How far are you likely to run your inherited mic cables to the input
interface?

well the cables are 20 feet long..

Are these budget extension cables *already* fitted with good make 3-p male
and female XLRs?

they have xlr connectors, i don't know if they're a good make.
i've recorded with them, they work

Are you going to coil and uncoil them repeatedly (daily) for a long period?

nope, i plugged them in and they're probably not going to move much if at all.

Do you know what the type of cable used in their assembly is? - its ID may
be silk-screened along the jacket.

im at home, no idea.

Probably not unless the cable breaks....... then you will notice a big
change.

The cheaper cables may be more likely to break due to mechanical
stress.

well now that they're setup they're probably not going to get moved much,
im not gigging or anything.. these were free so i'm only concerned with
the sound quality not durability. if they break i'll replace them but
i don't want to record with cables that are going to give me an inferior
sound quality compared to mid range reasonably priced cables..

BUT, cheap cables fail. And when they fail, some of them aren't even
repairable. A friend of mine recently got a stack of Samson cables from
a vendor to discover that half of them had cold solder joints, and one
of them even had a defect in the cable where only the red wire went in
one end of the cable and only the white one came out the other... the guys
at the factory just soldered the wires that were there and shipped it.
I won't even talk about those godawful molded Hosa connectors. There's
nothing
worse than trying to find a bad cable in a system when everyone is staring
at you. Spend money on decent cables like the Whirlwind, Canare, or Gepco
stuff. Crappy cables fail.

well i didn't spend any money on them so i don't care if they fail,
i just care about the quality of the recording, incidently these are
whirlwind cables.. their low end stuff i guess.

Probably not unless the cable breaks....... then you will notice a big
change.

so when a cable fails its unmistakable? it doesn't creep up or anything,
adding noise you only notice a week later?

and by breaking they short and you get no signal or they allow emi and
rfi into your audio.
ussually right in the middle of something important!

dale

steve wrote:

well i didn't spend any money on them so i don't care if they fail,

You will. When you have a cable shield go open at the connector when you
have the gain turned wide open, and suddenly the resulting hum blows your
speakers out, you'll care.

i just care about the quality of the recording, incidently these are
whirlwind cables.. their low end stuff i guess.

Those aren't bad. You should SEE how cheap cables get. They get WAY
cheaper than that, and people buy them. And then I get called out when
they fail. I cost more than good cables do.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

"steve" wrote in message
. ..
I'm using a firepod for recording with a beta 52, three sm57's, an
mxl603's
and a sennheiser e835.. when i bought my firepod the site i bought it at
had
a promotion where they threw in the sennheiser e835 and 8 whirlwind emc20
20foot cables for 'free'. the whirlwind cables seem to go for anywhere
from
$9-15 each on most sites so i'm guessing they're pretty bottom of the
barrel..

anyhow i don't know anything about mic cables although i do know that i'm
not
interested in spending $500 for 8 cables.. how much does the quality of a
mic
cable influence the sound? ie, would i notice a difference in recording
quality between these whirlwind cables and say a mid range $25 cable?

As far as "fidelity" is concerned, it doesn't make any difference. Mike
cable problems are all caused by poor shielding, triboelectricity or
problems caused by phantom power. Test for this by stepping on the cable
while recording. Run the cable next to AC line cords with current flowing.
If you have no audible problems--well, you have no problems.

Norm Strong

well i didn't spend any money on them so i don't care if they fail,

You will. When you have a cable shield go open at the connector when you
have the gain turned wide open, and suddenly the resulting hum blows your
speakers out, you'll care.

i just care about the quality of the recording, incidently these are
whirlwind cables.. their low end stuff i guess.

Those aren't bad. You should SEE how cheap cables get. They get WAY
cheaper than that, and people buy them. And then I get called out when
they fail. I cost more than good cables do.
--scott

Oh well, if they work and the results sound OKto you, and the cables are
going to stay there till the next fad, why do you ask? You could spend a
real fortune on hyped linkage cable, but you'll never *hear* the difference
with 20ft runs, but here the screening methods and properties are really
what count:
screened quad (heavy duty), braided twisted pair (best practical), lapped
(sometimes OK for mic levels), or foil jacket with a drain wire (line levels
only).
PS Are the mic ends of the cables subject to flexing and repositioning, ie
stands, booms, mounts, roving, swapping? This activity will count as fair
wear and tear, and sudden rupture could let you down when you are most
pressed for an urgent session.
Jim

On Mon, 21 Feb 2005 17:02:10 GMT, (steve) wrote:

I'm using a firepod for recording with a beta 52, three sm57's, an mxl603's
and a sennheiser e835.. when i bought my firepod the site i bought it at had
a promotion where they threw in the sennheiser e835 and 8 whirlwind emc20
20foot cables for 'free'. the whirlwind cables seem to go for anywhere from
$9-15 each on most sites so i'm guessing they're pretty bottom of the barrel..

anyhow i don't know anything about mic cables although i do know that i'm not
interested in spending $500 for 8 cables.. how much does the quality of a mic
cable influence the sound? ie, would i notice a difference in recording
quality between these whirlwind cables and say a mid range $25 cable?

Even the cheapest Whirlwind cables are better that the real "bottom of
the barrel" crap. Use 'em til they fail. As long as you're not working
in a difficult location where they pick up electrical noise, they will
sound just as good as the expensive cables.

Mike T.

"steve" wrote ...
I'm using a firepod for recording with a beta 52, three sm57's,
an mxl603's and a sennheiser e835.. when i bought my firepod
the site i bought it at had a promotion where they threw in the
sennheiser e835 and 8 whirlwind emc20 20foot cables for 'free'.
the whirlwind cables seem to go for anywhere from $9-15 each
on most sites so i'm guessing they're pretty bottom of the barrel..

They are actually pretty good value for the money. Don't buy into
the hype of "premium priced", "boutique", "snake-oil" overpriced
cables like "Monster" and such.

anyhow i don't know anything about mic cables although i do
know that i'm not interested in spending $500 for 8 cables..

Your common sense is in better working order than some people
who stumble through here. :-)

how much does the quality of a mic cable influence the sound?

"Catastrophic failures" (i.e. opens and/or shorts) will make
drastic changes in the "quality" (and likely even *existence*)
of the mic signal. Quality mic cable is mechanically sound
enough for the treatment you will give it. And quality mic
cable will have something approaching 100% shielding
coverage.

ie, would i notice a difference in recording quality between
these whirlwind cables and say a mid range $25 cable?

Highly unlikely. You could be listening for a long, long time
to try to hear differences between decent cables. Assuming
you are comparing cables of some nominal quality (with decent
connectors, etc.) You likely have better things to do with your
time than to try to hear qualitative differences between cables.

In article writes:

would i notice a difference in recording
quality between these whirlwind cables and say a mid range $25 cable?

Nope. Use what you got. They'll work just fine.

--
I'm really Mike Rivers )
However, until the spam goes away or Hell freezes over,
lots of IP addresses are blocked from this system. If
you e-mail me and it bounces, use your secret decoder ring
and reach me he double-m-eleven-double-zero at yahoo

On Mon, 21 Feb 2005 13:45:54 -0500, Scott Dorsey wrote
(in article ):

steve wrote:

anyhow i don't know anything about mic cables although i do know that i'm
not
interested in spending $500 for 8 cables.. how much does the quality of a
mic
cable influence the sound? ie, would i notice a difference in recording
quality between these whirlwind cables and say a mid range $25 cable?

Not very much. The whole nature of microphone lines is that they are low
impedance to reduce cable effects. You don't have to deal with the crap
that you do with home stereo stuff using crappy unbalanced high-Z lines.

BUT, cheap cables fail. And when they fail, some of them aren't even
repairable. A friend of mine recently got a stack of Samson cables from
a vendor to discover that half of them had cold solder joints, and one
of them even had a defect in the cable where only the red wire went in
one end of the cable and only the white one came out the other... the guys
at the factory just soldered the wires that were there and shipped it.
I won't even talk about those godawful molded Hosa connectors. There's
nothing
worse than trying to find a bad cable in a system when everyone is staring
at you. Spend money on decent cables like the Whirlwind, Canare, or Gepco
stuff. Crappy cables fail.
--scott


add Gotham to your list of good cables. I like GAC-3 and GAC-5

Ty Ford




-- Ty Ford's equipment reviews, audio samples, rates and other audiocentric
stuff are at www.tyford.com